Saina Nehwal – First Indian Woman to become World Number One

India’s star shuttler Saina Nehwal becomes the first Indian woman  to reach World number one ranking after defeating her Japanese opponent Yui Hashimoto in the India Open Super series semifinal match in New Delhi.  Saina defeated Hashimoto 21-15, 21-11 in a 43 minutes match. Saina is the second Indian player to reach world number one after legendary Prakash Padukone. In 2010, Nehwal ranked second and  she has been a top-10 player since 2009.

The Olympic bronze-medallist has won a total of 14 international titles in her superb career. Recently saina became the first Indian woman to make the finals of the most acclaimed All England Championships in Manchester.

Knowledge is Wealth

• The Badminton World Federation (BWF) is the international governing body for the sport of badminton.
• It was founded in 1934 as the International Badminton Federation with only nine member nations. Now the federation has 176 member countries.
• The headquarters of BWF is Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
• Badminton Association of India is the highest governing body of badminton in India.The Association is Based in Lucknow. 
• Dr. Akhilesh Das Gupta is the current President of Badminton Association of India.